Anyone else surprised at how poorly his reviews have aged and how many times he was way off about how important/influental a band or artist would be.
>"That's why I made the case for the McGarrigle Sisters and against Black Sabbath in Consumer Guide to the '70s."
Who the fuck actually remembers the McGarrigle Sisters?
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They’ve aged well cause even back then everyone knew he was retarded
lose weight
There's nothing wrong with that. Lester Bangs does that and everyone loves him. I guess people just couldn't figure out they need to tack on a "y'all know this is just my opinion right" at the end of every review.
Dude was hated by the entire NYC scene in the 70s-80s. I'm glad James Chance decked him and the Stranglers sent him death threats.
wish someone would do that to Fantano
>Who the fuck actually remembers the McGarrigle Sisters?
My grandma listens to them
Why did they hate him?
It's like Thurston Moore said. He didn't give a shit about the NYC scene or promoting bands. Instead of covering the many interesting developments at the time, he chose to waste page space in the Voice reviewing stuff like Ohio Players albums, which let's be honest, can be fun, but there's no real content or songwriting there, it's just dance grooves. And tons of other crap like Leo Sayer or whatever that was useless music he thought would be more interesting to write about than no wave or the hardcore scene.
he is such a cuck
I think the two sentence insults he passes for reviews might have something to do with it.
Ohio Players are better than the vast majority of hardcore bands.
Also why would you want Christgau to review something he feels no connection to, all he'll do is throw out a bomb and say he doesn't get it, and the fans would hate him even more. Don't tell me that James Chance and Sonic Youth fans were actually looking for his opinion.
Go to bed, Bob, you old cuck.
who?
i just ignore all critics
they just read like any other random dude on RYM. I guess he was a pioneer in the annoying little shit does a rapidfire opinion field but I could not care less about what he thinks
You have to read the protest letter that Thurston wrote to the Voice. He said that in most cities (LA, San Fran, whatever) you had music publications that would cover the local scene and support artists, but the Voice didn't do that or cover any music relevant to anything happening in NYC at the time.
Cuckgau in his reply back said he didn't give a shit and his "vision" was the Voice being a vehicle for music criticism (ie. writing two sentence insults about anything he doesn't like) instead of covering the NYC scene.
E R S A T Z
S H I T
Q: Okay, but you do have--I'm not looking for you to slag some of your contemporaries or whatever, but you obviously have some problems with [Robert Christgau]. You did that piece on the Pazz & Jop poll a few years ago...
A: Oh I have tremendous problems. I think I basically--first of all, I think he hates rock and roll. I don’t even think he makes much of a secret about it. If you actually look at his reviews, he doesn’t like rock bands. He said some miserably...I can’t think of a better way to put it but really bigoted things about, for instance, the heavy metal audience. And I think he's promoted a fairly self-aggrandizing idea of what rock criticism ought to be. So yeah, I disagree with all those things, and there’s no reason to make a secret of it.
His 80s best-of lists were particularly bad.
Didn't he give good ratings to some awful 90s Aerosmith buttrock album?
Yeah it was Get a Grip.
I saw him talking about Richard Hell in a documentary a couple days ago.
What the fuck, I had no idea Christgau was this based.
He also complained Fantano didn't review enough women artists.
I confuse Christgau and Scaruffi, isn't Christgau the one who gave Cardi B an A last year? Pretty much invalidates an entire career
Right now I'm listening to Enter Sandman and there's nothing this old faggot can do about it. :^)
He didn't like when Steely Dan went commercial on Aja because normies might discover them and he preferred it when only cool people like himself knew about the band.
One Hot Minute [Warner Bros., 1995] *bomb*
Its pretty lame to get that triggered by some reviewer though, no humbleness
Turn On the Bright Lights [Matador, 2002]
They bitch because everybody compares them to Joy Division, and they're right. It's way too kind, and I say that as someone who thanks Ian Curtis for making New Order possible. Joy Division struggled against depression rather than flaunting it, much less wearing it like a designer suit. What's truly depressing is that, just as the hairy behemoths of the grunge generation looked back to the AOR metal they immersed in as teens, these fops tweak the nostalgia of young adults who cherish indistinct memories of much worse bands than Joy Division, every one of them English--Bauhaus, Ultravox, Visage, Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears. At a critical moment in consciousness they exemplify and counsel disengagement, self-seeking, a luxurious cynicism. Says certified British subject Peter Banks: "Emotions are standard and boring. I'd like to find another way to live." That's thinking either big or very small. C+
What I don't understand is how this man retains a reputation at all. I guess during the late 60's - early 70's he had some relevant or interesting insight but what the fuck sustained him the last 45 years? Who the fuck reads him? His 'criticism' and taste are a total joke.
Christgau gives letter grades, Scaruffi gives number grades
So if someone gave Cardi B an A, they are Christgau. If someone gave Cardi B a 9/10 they are Scaruffi (Scaruffi hasn't reviewed her yet, that number is just an example)
>just as the hairy behemoths of the grunge generation looked back to the AOR metal they immersed in as teens
I mean, he's not wrong. All those guys grew up admiring Zeppelin and Floyd and Aerosmith and Judas Priest and Sabbath.
>mfw he still refers to punk rock in the present tense like it was a viable musical movement past the early 80s
what a mongoloid!
>I guess during the late 60's - early 70's he had some relevant or interesting insight
Not even then.
Stand Up [Island, 1969]
Fans of the group think it's a great album. I am not a fan of the group. I think it is an adequate album. B-
Why would anyone be surprised? He’s a blubbering pseudointellectual, not to mention extremely closed minded(the worst possible trait to have as a music critic). Half of reviews are just either unfunny non sequitors or downrating an album because it’s sexist or he hates the band members for something they did outside of the music.
Hot Opinions guy are you really in a place to call someone else a "blubbering pseudointellectual"
I haven’t been known to act like I’m the arbiter of music on shit I’m not very educated on like he does. Shitgau knows pop music. He doesn’t know shit about experimental music and constantly criticizes it, often negatively
Reviewers today are almost completely worthless. You can find any type of new music you want in the click of a button and word of mouth has much more power now than it ever had, so obviously getting upset at critics now would seem pretty pathetic.
Before the internet, though, a reviewer's words had much more weight to them, especially when they're as popular as Christgau was. It's not unreasonable for the underground NY scene to be upset that the most popular NY music critic ignored them completely because he couldn't get his head out of his ass for 2 seconds.
Or they sound too white.
to be fair he's not nearly as arrogant as Christgau
Cuckgau dismisses entire genres of music including metal, prog, salsa, and jazz-fusion as having no artistic worth and not being worth his time, but apparently all those Leo Sayer and Janet Jackson albums were groundbreaking, challenging artistic statements.
Anyone who calls himself a rock intellectual has abrogated the right to be taken seriously.
Based namefag
This.
Honestly of the critics we talk about on this board scaruffi>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
melon>poopgau. Im not even especially fond of scaruffi, but at least his negative reviews aren't pretentious and condescending
jesus christ this is cringy
Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors [Warner Bros., 2002]
Unlike his wife Faith, McGraw committed no egregious sonic offenses on his way to the top of the country charts, and given the kneejerk disdain Middle America elicits from my bicoastal cohort, I'd as soon leave him alone. But in a nation polarized far more cynically and effectively by the ruling class than the shallowest alt ideologue could dream, he has to be called on his love song to a Lady Liberty whose America includes no urban places, on his imperialist assumption that Mexico is for runaway spouses ha ha, even on his domestic bedrock, as if that's as socially responsible as rugged individualism need be. And then there's the matter of "Who Are They," which goes so far as to blame "safe sex" and the replacement of "what the hell" by "what the heck" (I swear) on the owners of this newspaper (honest, named as such), called "funny boys" when he means "faggots" because "They" so decree. Fuck that. I don't much like how David Schneiderman treats unions, but I'm here to tell Timbo that my boss is a better family man than any damn country roadhog. "I wonder if They like to fight," muses Timbo on his way to finding out where "They" live. Me, I use my words. If any Nashville thug lays a hand on me, I'll sue him within 50 cents of his ignorant life. C+
based
>All those guys grew up admiring Zeppelin and Floyd and Aerosmith and Judas Priest and Sabbath.
Some of them did, but for instance, Kurt Cobain liked punk and noise rock a lot more than classic rock, and Kim Thayil always denied that Soundgarden's heavy sound came from Zeppelin and Sabbath
>at least his negative reviews aren't pretentious and condescending
they are, though
He rarely gives really terrible ratings though, even artists he supposedly hates (beatles, bowie, radiohead) have 7s. The reviews on these artists are mostly him saying they are overrated, unlike xgau who makes ugly personal attacks on artists he doesn't like.
What a fag
A lot of his reviews are pretentious and condescending, though, regardless of scores. I won't argue he's worse than Christgau, he definitely isn't, but he's still really bad.
very few mainstream critics have consistently liked metal though his scores and reviews aren't that out of the ordinary lol.
Eve [Arista, 1979]
Musically, this is a step toward schlock that knows its name--a few smarmy melodies mixed in with the production values and synthesizer furbelows. Thematically, it's both sophomoric and disgusting--programmatic misogyny rooted in sexual rejections that were clearly deserved. Visually, it's sadistic--the three women on the Hipgnosis cover wear black veils that only partly conceal their scars, warts and blotches. What is it they stencil on street corners? Castrate art rockers? D
Marsh and Greil Marcus never wrote much about metal, but I never recall them going out of their way to attack its fans or claim it's artistically invalid because black people don't listen to it.
Like really. Why does it matter if blacks do or don't like a certain genre of music?
There were black guys in the 80s who played metal, they got little recognition.
>Thematically, it's both sophomoric and disgusting--programmatic misogyny rooted in sexual rejections that were clearly deserved.
So much projection.
>Anyone else surprised at how poorly his reviews have aged and how many times he was way off about how important/influental a band or artist would be.
no
Cuckgau is a guy who seemingly can't get past the 60s notion that rock isn't artistically valid unless it promotes some progressive political cause.
He's clearly a guy who likes everything as simplified and easy to digest as possible. Any music he can't immediately figure out what's going on he doesn't want to deal with.
>Tell it, sister
>Ca-ching
>Car-di!
i fucking hate him.
Literally anyone could have wrote something like that lel. Some pro.
>memed critic is a faggot
More news at 11.
Reminder that this man self-proclaims himself 'the dean of rock critics'.
Living With War [Reprise, 2006]
OK, more news event than musical milestone. But a really great news event--believe me, the '60s never produced an album that felt this much like a peace march. The key is the sense of fellowship, with music carried less by the artist's broad guitar and creaky voice than by loud drums, what-the? horn arrangements, and a hundred-person chorus on every song. The second consecutive Neil Young album where you know what all the words mean (following 50-odd where you didn't) specifies that this radical-of-the-moment is not averse to supporting a repentant Colin Powell. This proves him a populist if anything does. B+
I remember seeing this CD in Target and showing my mom. We were doubled up in laughter at the song titles.